Doing the country proud
UNIVERSITY of Nottingham Malaysia Campus ( UNMC) School of Education assistant professor, Dr Maria Kaparou, is the winner of the prestigious British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society ( BELMAS) Thesis Award 2015.
The BELMAS Award panel selected Dr Kaparou’s doctoral research study as the best doctoral thesis awarded by a university ( The University of Warwick) in the UK.
This study on “instructional leadership within a cross- country comparative education context” has been recognised as “a study with the most significant contribution to the field of educational leadership, management and policy, while it enhances theoretical significance grounded in comparative empirical research” ( https:// www. belmas. org. uk/ Latest- News/ winner- of- thesis- award- 2015).
Research on instructional leadership
In the light of constant changes and policy instability in the English and Greek policy systems, the doctoral thesis examined the enactment of instructional leadership in high- performing secondary schools to explore the diversity of leadership conceptualisation and implementation within and across the systems.
In addition, the relationship between leadership and learning in enhancing student progress and encouraging teachers’ professional learning in a centralised and partially decentralised educational system has been examined.
Instructional leadership is about the professional learning of teachers as well as student growth with a focus to improve learning outcomes that requires an approach to leadership development, which includes teaching and learning as a vital part of the educational process.
The critical role instructional leadership plays in creating and sustaining a learning culture has gained international currency while teaching quality and leadership are recognised as the two key influences on student learning within European governments’ reform agendas. In the same vein, the Malaysia Education Blueprint ( 2013- 2025) highlights the need for school leaders to become instructional leaders, while the Ministry’s intention is to empower leaders to act as instructional leaders to raise student outcomes.
The study demonstrated theoretical significance in its focus on the collaborative and reciprocal nature of instructional leadership. Despite hierarchical limitations, the pedagogical empowerment of teachers also suggests a collaborative instructional leadership culture.
This study’s empirical contribution lies in generating new knowledge on how instructional leadership is contextually bounded. It also made a unique contribution to knowledge by developing a model of instructional leadership that is particularly apposite for highly centralised education systems.
“I am grateful to my supervisor, Prof Tony Bush, for his academic guidance and contribution. A very special thank you to BELMAS for recognising the excellence of this doctoral research,” said Dr Kaparou.
She also expressed her appreciation to the University of Warwick ( UK), which has added significantly to her academic and professional development.
Dr Kaparou received the award during the BELMAS annual conference on July 11 at Wokefield Park, Reading ( UK).
Prior to her appointment to the UNMC in October 2014, Dr Kaparou has been an academic member of staff at the University of Warwick ( UK). She has over 13 years’ experience in the education sector in Athens and the UK.
In 2013, Dr Kaparou received a University of Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence in Higher Education for her innovative teaching methods in higher education.
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